Göttinger
Predigten im Internet,
hg. von Ulrich Nembach und Johannes Neukirch
Sonntag:
4. Sonntag im Kirchenjahr, 4. Advent
Datum:
20.12.1998
Text: Lukas
1, 26-38
Verfasser: Prof. Dr.Dr. Ulrich Nembach
Luke, 1, 26 - 38
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a
city of Galilee, named Nazareth.
To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house
of David; and the virgin`s name was Mary.
And the angel came unto her, and said, Hail, thou art highly
favoured, the lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in
her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary; for thous hast found
favour with God.
And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a
son, and shalt call him JESUS.
He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the highest.
And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father
David:
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his
kingdom there shall be no end.
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be? Seeing I know
not a man?
And the angel answered and said unto her, The holy ghost shall
come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God.
And behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son
in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was
called barren.
For with God nothing shall be impossible.
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me
according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
"Rejoice, glory, praise be to heaven!"
Bach wrote these words about 250 years ago but the meaning had to
do with 1750 years further in the past, Christmas. The days in
Advent throw out immense shadows and during this time something
special happened, the angel Gabriel visited Mary.
In this day and age we seldom come across angels, they are not
common in the bible either. Luke, who tells us the story, knows
something of angels, just before Jesus` s birth, later, after the
birth and then Jesus`s resurrection. Here, Gabriel acts as God`s
envoy to Mary. God acts and sends his chief angel who sets forth
immediately to his destination, a small place unknown, in fact,
hardly worth mentioning. Göttingen is well known through its
university and through the north-south traffic on the roads and
rails. Who knew of Nazareth in the tiny region of Galilee? An
unknown place visited by the Archangel
This visit has always delighted people and inspired children.
Artists have painted Gabriel, composers have written their music
for voice and instruments. After his arrival in Nazareth, Gabriel
greeted Mary with "Ave Maria" which since then has
found its way into liturgy and prayer.
Ave Maria, or from the Greek "xaire" - is the everyday
greeting. God sent his angel into everyday life, not to change it
but to take it up. The connection between God and Mary is of a
total humanitarian nature. Mary was a young girl who was to marry
an older man, a certain Joseph, a handy-man and a carpenter. Mary
was not a beautiful, radiant woman, she attained that at a later
stage. She was a poor girl without any future in a small and
insignificant place. The contrast between God and Mary could
hardly have been greater. But God would not be God when the
circumstances stay the same, he grabs hold of the situation, and
how! One of his top angels has to get going. When God and man
meet together, nothing stays as it was.
But this change is not an everyday occurrence ,it is not a fairy
tale that begins with the poor girl Mary turning into a shining
young woman. God doesn't deal in fairy tales, real life remains
real life and yet is different.
Change in non-change is apparent in Gabriel´s speech:
Gabriel uses the daily greeting "ave" and alternates
tone and speech. For his further address to Mary he uses an
unusual, hardly used word which doesn't appear in the German or
Latin languages. We can only try and translate it the best we
can, it is a verb and means "make pleasant", "pay
homage to", "Give mercy".
The difficulty lies in the thought of making someone pleasant,
should we become public relations people? More difficult but at
the same time easier is wen we refer to grammar, the verb from
Gabriel`s speech is in the perfect passive, the Latin translation
helps us only in the fact that the verbform dissolves. The
greeting is probably one of the most well known: "Hail
Mary". The prerequisite for this translation is of Mary, a
woman, a person who is used as a drum filled with mercy. The
greeting that Mary uses everyday loses it`s verb. The daily
routine that Gabriel is sent into is given up.
Mary reacts as a human, she is confused and shocked. Which
emancipated girl of today would react in a similar way if so
approached? " You favoured one" Luther thought about
changing it to "God loves you dear Mary". Gabriel
reacts to Mary in a human way, he says, "Fear not Mary, for
thou hast found favour with God". The Gabriel ets down to
the nitty-gritty and gives his message.
Again Mary acts as a young girl, shocked but politely she asks
how she should have a child when she is still a virgin. Gabriel
understands her question perfectly and answers her.
There are Theologians who are of the opinion that the story of
Mary giving birth to Jesus when she was still a virgin, stems
from Luke or other sources.
Mary is caught up in the turmoil of our opinions, that is nothing
new or special,
According to St.Luke, Mary went to visit her much older cousin
Elisabeth where she praised God with a song, the magnificat. It
is a beautiful song which was to inspire many composers in later
years. The index naming the composers and their works is 8.5
pages long (Söhnke Remmert, Bilbeltexte in der Musik, Göttingen
1996)
So are we humans, we like to see all the nice things that we can
easily comprehend but look over and conceal the problems of our
everyday life. Mary, too had problems. As a young, engaged girl
already pregnant meant in those days, being stoned to death.
Joseph saved her by marrying her. Later the birth takes place in
a stable, no sterile clinic for her but a high risk for her and
that of her baby.
We sing the carol "Silent night, Holy night" but we
forget that this carol also had a difficult "birth". It
was 180 years ago where a parish had lost it`s church two years
previously, in 1816, through an attack on it`s border. The parish
church was unreachable at the other end of the river Salzach and
on this side of the river was an old run-down church with a
battered, out-of-tune organ. The parish priest, a poor but well
meaning man, was very courageous, by taking the initiative, he
composed text and music for the song "Silent night, Holy
night" where he sang it a t Christmas with the organist, a
young teacher. The priest sang tenor and the teacher sang bass
and the priest accompanied them on the guitar. The song became
well known very quickly. Thirty years later the Cathedral choir
in Berlin took it into their repertoire and sang in regularly at
the King's Palace. At the same time thirty years later the priest
died of tuberculosis. Both listeners and singers didn't bother
about the originator of the song. The Prussian King started
investigations but the people didn't take any notice, the sang
the song in it's shortened version and left out the most
important verses. Today, hardly anyone can remember the other
verses, that's why they are so important, they were as valid for
the people of Salzach in 1818 as they are in this day and age and
further into the year 2000. One of the forgotten verses is:
Silent night, Holy night,
where all the power
of Fatherly love
and as brother graciously enfolds
Jesus the saviour of the world.
This simple rhyme names implicitly the visit from Gabriel to
Mary.
With his son, God started an initiative for the whole world to
love one another. He did it quite unspectacularly, quite
different from today's public countdown in front of cameras, such
as we experience from places like NASA. Some will question the
authenticity of the whole story and others will celebrate
Christmas just as they always have and because Christmas time is
one of the most glorious festivities in the church year but don't
forget those priests and teachers in small unknown communities.
God takes us seriously, so much so that he intervenes and sends
his Archangel to us.
That is why I am looking forward to singing Bach's "Rejoice,
Glory, praise be to heaven" and then after this great shout
of joy "How should I receive thee?"
Amen
Lied: Wie soll ich dich empfangen?
Prof. Dr. Dr. Ulrich Nembach / Göttingen
Email: unembac@gwdg.de
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